News on your favorite shows, specials & more!

STAGE TUBE: Tony Awards Opening Number- Lyrics, Credits & More!

By: Jun. 11, 2012
2012 AWARDS SEASON
Click Here for More on 2012 AWARDS SEASON
Enter Your Email to Unlock This Article

Plus, get the best of BroadwayWorld delivered to your inbox, and unlimited access to our editorial content across the globe.




Existing user? Just click login.





The 2012 Tony Awards, presented by The Broadway League and the American Theatre Wing and hosted by Neil Patrick Harris, are through! The ceremony was broadcast last night, June 10, in a live three-hour ceremony from the Beacon Theatre, on the CBS television network. 

Below check out this year's hilarious opening number (with all the lyrics), which featured host Neil Patrick Harris and appearances by Amanda Seyfried, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Patti LuPone, and more! The song was written by CRY BABY writers and Tony nominees David Javerbaum and Adam Schlesinger. 

What if life were more like theatre?
What if everywhere you went you heard a band?
Wouldn't life be so much sweeter
if you could queue the weather with your hand?

Cool!

And what if all your questions had rhyming answers
And you never left home without your back-up dancers?
What if life were more like theatre?
Wouldn't life be grand?

What if life were tightly written
And divided into nifty little scenes

AS: You're my whole world
NPH: The world's a pretty big place, Amanda.
AS: What's that suposed to mean?
NPH: It means I'm leaving you.
AS: No! Mamma mia!

And just as you spilttin'
Your apartment disappeared by unknown means
Thanks mysterious people in black clothing!

And what if no one thought that there was something strange
About a magical, seven-second costume change?
And then apropos of nothing
There were crazy dance routines!

What if everyone's diction were crisper
And secrets were told in a shouted whisper
And the only problems that mattered were your own

NPH: Hey, you guys wanna hear me sing about my problems?
DANCERS: Yeah!
NPH: I love my fake friends!

What if everyone took it for granted
That British umbrellas were all enchanted
You can hardly see the cables!
And your next-door neighbor was the legendary Patti LuPone

NPH: Hi, Patti!
PL: Hi, Neil!

What if life were more exciting
More dramatic, intriguing, intense?
If every moment were nail-biting
Filled with ever-mounting danger and suspense?

And then just when you were in the most precarious position
You would get a brief intermission

(Pause)

Act two!
What if all of your colleagues were hotties
With freakishly flexible bodies
And none of them needed to sleep or eat or pee?

DANCERS: We don't pee!

And if one day you feel kinda cruddy
You stay home and call your understudy
JTF: Yes, the role of him will now be played by me!

NPH: Actually, you know what? I'm feeling better now!
JTF: Are you sure? 'Cuz I can take the last verse.
NPH: No I'm good!
JTF: You just sound tired. 
NPH: Go away- you threaten me!

What if life were more like theatre
With a simple motivation and a plot?
Don't we all wish life were neater?
But we know that in reality it's not

No, life is bleak and brutal and we carry from the cradle
The awarenes that it's futile and invariably fatal
We muddle without rest but through the sadness and confusion
We huddle at the cesspit of our sadness and delusion

ANNIE: Hold on. Hold on! Leapin' lizards, Mr. Patrick Harris! Don't be a downer- this is the Tony Awards! And remember, the sun will come out tomorrow!
NPH: Really? You know, you've got a point, little orphan know-it-all. But since you're not back on Broadway til next fall, why don't you go find your parents.

Big finish!
If life were more like theatre
Life wouldn't suck so much!
Life wouldn't suck so much!




Videos